By Sarita Chemburkar Agriculture is the main source of livelihoods for around 6 out of 10 people in India, and groundwater has played a key role in providing water for agriculture, especially post the Green Revolution in the 1970s. At a global level, India is today the world’s largest groundwater user, consuming an approximately 260 […]

Much at stake for developing countries like India at COP24 By Arjuna Srinidhi It’s that time of the year again, when world leaders, experts, activists and representatives from affected communities gather to negotiate the best way to tackle climate change. There is so much at stake – lives, livelihoods, industrial growth, economies of countries and […]

By Vikas Prakash Joshi & Arjuna Srinidhi According to some statistics, 68% of India’s land is prone to drought, 60% to earthquakes, 12% to floods and 8% to cyclones, making India one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. [1] The incidence of such natural disasters is also on the rise in India, as a […]

By Vikas Prakash Joshi & Isha Fuletra On the occasion of Renewable Energy Day, or Akshay Urja Din, celebrated on August 20 every year, it is worth looking at the progress of the renewable energy industry in India in the last decade or so. As of May 2018, renewable energy (RE) constitutes 17 percent of […]

By Vikas Prakash Joshi Organic agriculture is generally considered a more sustainable and eco- friendly approach to agriculture than conventional chemical-based farming practices. Organic practices generally do not rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides which leach the soil of nutrients, and are less expensive. At the national and state level, there have been a number […]

World Population Day 2018 theme can help build resilience to climate change and ensure it gets the status of a ‘human right’ By Arjuna Srinidhi The battle for water amidst a growing population and heightened weather variability in India For 29 years, the World Population Day has been celebrated on the 11th of July, to […]

By Shreya Banerjee In order to deal with the consequences of climate change, the unsustainable nature of conventional agriculture, and the tremendous stress on the world’s limited and rapidly depleting natural resources, various new practices have been coming up in the field of sustainable agriculture. The blog explores the different terminologies that have come up and […]

The Water Governance Standard and Certification System is developed to bridge the gap between agrarian communities and the resource agencies. It serves multiple objectives. Its ultimate aim is to develop a system that incentivizes agrarian communities to adopt sustainable water governance practices at local level for assured drinking water and enhanced livelihood opportunities.

There’s a resilience in the farming community that often gets overlooked – a community that has, over generations, developed its own methods and practices of dealing with the unhindered forces of nature. These practices are, unfortunately, being put to test owing to the changing climatic conditions all over the earth. As unpredictable weather patterns keep baffling the farmers, the need for an intervention is apparent to level the playing field. In this regard, we shift the focus on WOTR’s weather advisory initiative which is a real-time, localized, early-warning system which disseminates information directly to the farmers via SMS services. Looking at the effectiveness of the intervention from the vantage point of the farmers brings out the socio-economic complexities which are rarely apparent on the surface.

a story of an innovation champion Shri Ganesh Goud, who has adopted a new approach called the Group Micro Irrigation (GMI) approach and is a change maker at the community level. WOTR has been promoting this approach since 2014, and 11 groups are covering 149 farmers. The experiences of convincing farmers the advantages this approach has been a challenging task – as sharing water resources particularly in a drought-prone area where it is becoming scare every year is a contentious issue! However, like every cloud has a silver lining, the story of Ganesh Goud and his group from Badnapur village is one to share